Three lads were caught on camera smashing up allotments in a callous attack with no explainable motive.
In the early hours of Saturday June, 26, the three males were captured on CCTV inside Cabbage Hall Community Allotment on Hard Lane in St Helens.
The group smashed glass in the greenhouse and broke into a shed belonging to one community group.
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Volunteer coordinator Sharon Martindale said there was "no motive" behind the act, but that it took a couple of hours for volunteers to clean up the mess.
Merseyside Police confirmed nothing was reported as stolen but damage was caused and enquiries have been carried out.
She said: "We have CCTV and it comes up on my phone and it senses there’s some movement in the community allotment.
"Nine times out of ten it’s birds flying past but on Saturday morning there were these three lads making a nuisance of themselves.
"We think they came out from the housing estate at the side of us and then came over because if they had came forward from the gates we would have seen them.
"They broke into a shed that belonged to one of the community groups and took bits and bobs from there. They didn't damage the polytunnel, they took some stuff in the polytunnel and they tipped things out
"There was no motive for what they did they steal anything in particular. We were a bit deflated and annoyed and upset that they would come in and do that because this is a community space
"At 6am in the morning you're expecting them to be in bed."
Cabbage Hall Community Allotment CIC was established in 2019 and work with a number of community groups in the area.
Sharon told the ECHO that despite the incident, the group are turning it into a positive and want to focus on continuing their work.
She said: "There’s no reason why we should let them get to us because what they’ve done is just mindless
"The positive is we wont let it get us down or get on top of us. We just have to keep going.
"We’re disabled-friendly, we’ve all had our covid test to get groups on, we have plots that groups and individuals can use.
"We’ve got a good name in the community and we’re quite well thought of and a few people offered to come and clean up. It was only a two or three man job to clean it up."
Posting to Facebook, the group said: "Anybody know who these little cherubs are who broke into the community allotment this morning.
"Smashed glass in the greenhouse and broke into a shed belonging to one of our community groups. The police have been informed."
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Merseyside Police said: "We were contacted at 9.35am on Saturday 26 th June following reports that unknown offenders had caused damage to panels in a greenhouse on allotments on Hard Lane in St Helens.
"The offenders also forced entry to a wooden shed. Nothing was reported as stolen but damage was caused.
"Enquiries have been carried out."
Anyone with information is asked to DM @MerPolCC or @CrimestoppersUK quoting reference 21000445776.
People who wish to get involved and volunteer with Cabbage Hall Community Allotment CIC can email cabbagehallcic@gmail.com
